How To Survive As A Young Female Entrepreneur When Building A Technology Business

To my fellow and aspiring young female entrepreneurs – I sometimes think that the closest feeling that you could possibly equate to starting your business is the same as if you were having a baby.

No, I’ve never had a child, I’m still far too young.

However, I have experienced the labour pains, the unconditional love and excitement, the gratitude when something that once grew inside you conceive itself into an actual being for the real world to interact with.

It’s a magical feeling. Not for the faint hearted, but worth every second.

Why should a female only ‘survive’ when she can ‘win’? Why is being a female portrayed as being more difficult than being a male?

I sincerely believe that if one chooses to look at an issue in negative light, they will never be able to derive a positive outcome from it.

We need to believe in our strengths, and not our weaknesses. Nobody in life is going to hand us power, we just have to go and take it.

We need to associate ourselves with strength and power from the get-go, because being a female is fun, beautiful, and easy, and we should cherish our womanhood, especially while building a technology business.  

Advice 1

Pick a business that you’d have fun building, as happiness is key to success. If we all do what we love, we’d never have to work a day in our lives, and that’s a life worth living.

Advice 2

Young female entrepreneurs need to be extremely stingy with their time, and prioritise it to a tee.

I started my business while I was in my second year at the Desautels Faculty of Management at McGill University, and trust me, managing my time wasn’t easy.

However, with the right mindset and prioritisation tactics, you can do it too. Don’t be afraid to cut out people or activities that don’t add any value to your life, that’s the only way you’ll grow.

Advice 3

Don’t neglect your health and fitness, as it’s possibly the best investment you can make for your business.

During the time I was working on my tech business Gottafind.it, I would take time out to read about food science, neurology and super foods than can have a direct impact on my life and success.

I would then custom tailored my diet to eating only organic food that would contain the highest nutritional density and work out least 4 times a week.

The result was that I had long-lasting, clean energy throughout the day, a clearer thought process, and all in all more motivation.

Advice 4

If you are a female starting a technology business, you are likely to hire male programmers at some point.

If done right, women have the ability to add a more human and emotional touch to selling someone their vision, that will lead to a higher rate of people accepting to work for you, even without pay.

There’s a very fine line between understanding your team’s needs, and knowing when to be stern enough to push them further. Learning how to balance this will make your team invincible.

Advice 5

Sometimes, while building complex technology businesses, you are going to be faced with issues you are unaware of that other male members of your team would know better.

Don’t be affected by ego, either yours or someone else’s, and don’t be afraid of complex issues. Everything is simple if you put your mind to it.

Advice 6

No matter how busy I’d get, I’d make sure to spend at least an hour a day, by myself, simply introspecting, reflecting on my past decisions and planning for the future.

Believe it or not, spending time alone can leave you feeling empowered, make you more emotionally intelligent and resilient. These periods of introspection can be great for both your life and your business.

Advice 7

Get out there and be seen, and constantly seek out information and guides that can help improve yourself.

Make a brand out of yourself, create a feedback loop with your potential customers, build your social media followings and watch your business grow with you simultaneously.

Tanya Sardana is a 22-year-old tech entrepreneur and the founder of Gottafind.it – An image recognition software startup.